Man beaten up after asking about unavailability of drugs at Delhi's GB Pant Hospital

Man beaten up after asking about unavailability of drugs at Delhi's GB Pant Hospital

After news about the lack of life saving drugs with government run medical institutes in the city, now a case of a patient being kicked and dragged when he questioned about the availability of medicines has been reported.

Ask for free medicines at one of Delhi government's biggest hospitals and you will get kicks and punches instead, says Mohd Kashif. The 27-year-old city resident claims he was beaten up by the pharmacists and security guards at GB Pant Hospital on Wednesday after he raised questions about the availability of drugs.

He has shared with Mail Today a video of the incident that he shot on his cellphone.

"I took a day off from work only to get free medicine for my brother who is suffering from a neurological disorder, but it came at a huge cost. I was beaten up by the pharmacists and then the security guards dragged me outside when I started to record everything on my mobile phone camera. I want to tell the government that if we speak up for our rights, we get harassed and beaten," he told Mail Today.

Dr Sanjay Tyagi, director of GB Pant Hospital, said he was not aware of the situation. He asked this reporter to contact Dr Dharmendra Gupta, medical superintendent of the institute.

However, Dr Gupta did not respond to phone calls and an SMS from this reporter. Other patients who witnessed the scene narrated how Kashif was dragged outside and slapped by pharmacists and guards.

Shahida, 33, was also standing in a queue to get medicines. She told Mail Today, "Kashif was badly beaten when he tried to find out about the medicines."

Another Delhi resident, Pushpender, also did not get any medicine. He showed Mail Today a list of the drugs he purchased from a chemist shop outside. "Sometimes the pharmacists here give me medicines that are cheap, but I have to purchase the expensive ones from outside. For the past six months, I have been living on false hope," he said.

Fifty-five-year-old Aamna says she has been purchasing medicines worth Rs 2,000 from outside every month. She had stood in the queue at the GB Pant pharmacy for several hours on Wednesday.

"I have undergone pacemaker surgery and did not get the medicine. It is a time of festivities and we too want to celebrate," she said.

Like Pushpender and Aamna, dozens of patients narrated the same tale of not getting medicines and being manhandled by pharmacists for their queries. The development comes on the heels of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and health minister Satyendar Jain making surprise visits to GB Pant Hospital and other state run medical institutes this month after Mail Today highlighted the issue of unavailability of life saving drugs. Since then, the government has been claiming that it has kept an eye on the supply of medicines at various hospitals.